The invention relates to a plumbing fixture which can be inserted into a supply tube, having at least two components, a first one of which can be inserted into the receiving opening of a second part, and which components can be connected to each other with the aid of locking means and counter-locking means, with one part being provided with at least one locking means and the other part with a locking counter-means, serving as a counterpart of said locking means.
Various different plumbing fixtures are known, which are provided with a jet regulator, a flow regulator, and/or a backflow preventer. In order to ensure the long lasting function of such a plumbing fixture and to counteract the entry of dirt particles entrained in the water into the jet regulator, the flow regulator or the backflow preventer, the plumbing fixtures of prior art are usually provided with a preliminary sieve upstream. Here, said preliminary sieve can be inserted into a receiving opening at the face of a downstream following jet regulator or a similar component and be held there via a locking or snap-in connection.
In order to allow an easy interlocking of these components or parts of the fixtures of prior art the parts must be produced, particularly in the area of their locking or snap-in connection, precisely and without any sizeable production tolerances. The production of these components is therefore due to this alone associated with a comparatively high production expense.
From DE 38 17 270 A1 a jet regulator insert is known, which can be inserted into the outlet mouthpiece of a plumbing faucet. In order to reduce a developing increasing back pressure due to contamination at the back of the insert, the passage cross-section of the jet regulator can be enlarged when a predetermined back pressure is exceeded, by releasing the jet regulator insert from its normal operating position and allowing it into a trigger position, in which a circular channel is formed around the insert widening the overall open cross-section of the passage. For this purpose the jet regulator insert is inserted from the outlet side into the outlet mouthpiece and held here by a holding device. Said holding device is a component of a trigger device, which releases the jet regulator insert when a predetermined back pressure is exceeded. Said holding device is provided with spring clips to hold the jet regulator insert in its normal position, which protrude circumferentially beyond the perimeter wall of the jet regulator insert and carry snapping ribs at their free ends. The spring clips point with their free ends opposite the flow direction and engage with their snapping ribs into an encircling circular groove in the outlet mouthpiece.
For the compression and release of the spring clips to cause interlocking a respectively large axial play must always be given between the exterior perimeter wall of the jet regulator insert, on the one side, and the interior perimeter of the outlet mouthpiece, on the other hand, due to the fact that in the jet regulator insert known from DE 38 17 270 A1 the snapping ribs, even in the compressed state of the spring clips, cannot enter the enveloping circle determined by the exterior perimeter of the wall of the jet regulator insert. Although such an axial play is easily possible where the cross-section of the tube in the flow direction can widen, however, in such components in which the connection area is always subject to water flow usually the connection should be as form-fitting as possible without any large axial play.
From WO 2004/038112 A an adapter is known, which at the outlet side can be screwed into the water outlet of a plumbing fixture and in which the jet regulator can be inserted. In order to ensure the function of the jet regulator inserted into the adapter the adapter can be locked to a preliminary sieve. Said preliminary sieve has an encircling locking bead at its exterior sieve perimeter, which engages the locking grooves of several crown-shaped spring clips protruding from the adapter. Although a recess is provided in form of a circular groove between the wall section of the preliminary sieve carrying the locking bead and the conical sieve surface, the wall section carrying the locking bead is embodied so massively that an insertion of this wall section seems not easily possible. In order to detach the locking connection between the preliminary sieve and the adapter the crown-shaped protruding spring clips provided at the adapter can be deflected outwardly, without essentially enlarging the axial longitudinal extension of the adapter.